How Much Does A Dog Tooth Extraction Cost

Dog Tooth Extraction Cost

If you haven’t got an inkling as to how much it would cost you to have this procedure for your pet, you came to the right place.

Overall Cost of A Dog’s Tooth Extraction

Unless your dog is very young, a dental cleaning is recommended whenever teeth need to be extracted. Most veterinary clinics offer package pricing for dental cleaning. The fee already includes oral exam and anesthesia which are both needed for the procedure. The fee for extractions is usually considered as an additional charge.

Depending on the clinic, the fee is calculated either per tooth or per the number of time spent on the extraction. Thus, other than the surgery itself, there are some pre-surgery and post-surgery expenses that accompany the cost of tooth extraction for dogs.

The price of the actual extraction of the tooth can vary widely. A simple non-surgical incisor extraction can cost as little as $10. A difficult canine extraction requiring suture and nerve block can cost up to $150.

Difficult extractions should be followed up by an x-ray to make sure the entire tooth has been removed. Ask your veterinarian if they will do dental x-rays. Not all clinics have a dental x-ray machine. A fair price for a single post-extraction x-ray is $50 to $100. You can also expect your veterinarian to send home medications for the extraction. The combined cost of the antibiotics and pain medication will range from $30 to $90 in normal healthy dogs.

You would also expect different pricing depending on the condition of the tooth or teeth.

These include the following:

  • Exposure of the tooth pulp or if the fracture is too extensive that it extends to the gumline.
  • What tooth needs to be pulled. Carnassial teeth are the most difficult to extract.
  • Presence of abscess near the subject tooth. Besides complicating the extraction, your dog would need antibiotics prior to the procedure.

Some of the total expenditures for this procedure as shared by various dog owners are the following:

  • A Boxer Mix in Mid-Atlantic had a vet estimate that ranges from $1,550 to $1,800 to remove two teeth
  • A dog owner in suburban New York City had spent $1,200 to $1,300 for 5 teeth extraction surgery for their old dog, including bloodwork, biopsy, and antibiotics – with the molar alone was priced at around $900.
  • Extraction of a slab-fractured pre-molar plus extensive cleaning amounted to $700. The pet owner added that 5-6 extractions typically costs $825 to $950 depending on the type of teeth.
  • A brachycephalic (half pug) dog with a fractured pre-molar tooth, with the fractured part attached to the gumline which is at high risk of infection – was quoted at $1,400 to $2,000 by a specialist.
  • A Boston Terrier had two teeth pulled, 2 chipped teeth repaired, and a tiny pocket of infection treated – all for $1,800 which were covered by insurance.
  • A total of $1,300 was quoted for 5-6 teeth, including whatever additional procedure necessary.

There are low-cost options. Helping Hands Veterinary Clinic based in Virginia offers 2 different packages involving dental care. If you would want to get your dog’s teeth extracted without using a radiograph, the veterinary clinic has a package for $285. The cost already includes cleaning and the cost to pull the dog’s teeth.

As stated in its website, it will extract teeth which it deemed as decayed or loose after conducting a physical examination. The amount payable is already fixed irrespective of the number of the tooth that will be extracted.

Another package offered by the Helping Hands Clinic is the dental care package with X-ray. Since this package includes the use of a radiograph, the cost is higher at $685, compared to the first one.

Dog Tooth Extraction Cost Wide
How Much Does A Dog Tooth Extraction Cost 4

The dental radiograph will be beneficial in diagnosing the problems and in ensuring that they are addressed.

Another example of low-cost dog tooth extraction is from Pet Dental USA, a dental clinic based in Arizona, which offers a pet dental cleaning service for only $195. The package already includes the pre-dental exam, full dental cleaning, minor extractions, pain medication, and antibiotics. However, the clinic only caters single-rooted and loose-tooth extractions.

Basing on its price, Paws seem to only conduct nonsurgical extraction on either a single-rooted or a loose tooth. More complicated conditions would require a surgical extraction and would, therefore, cost more.

Most dental clinics based in the US do not post price estimations on their websites. The reason behind this is that they want to specifically assess the case of your dog before giving you the total cost.

Extraction without a Dental Cleaning

Rarely, a dog will need a tooth extraction without a dental cleaning. A young dog who has broken a tooth is one example. Retained puppy teeth would be another example.

The largest cost of tooth extraction is the cost of going under anesthesia. Combining tooth extraction with another anesthetic procedure saves significant money.

In the case of retained puppy teeth, they can be removed during a spay or neuter. This is especially convenient since dogs with retained puppy teeth should never be used for breeding.

Removing puppy teeth is usually straightforward and does not require dental x-rays. The cost of removing each tooth ranges from $10 to $50 on top of the spay or neuter price. Veterinarians may charge by the type of tooth (incisor, molar, canine) or they may charge by how much time they spend extracting.

When not combined with any other procedure, tooth extraction cost will include anesthesia, any x-rays, and take-home medications, plus the actual tooth extraction. For a quick single tooth removal under minimal anesthesia, the total cost is $60 to $250. For more extensive extractions, the cost ranges from $200 to $600 for the first tooth and $10 to $150 for each additional tooth.

Anesthesia Costs

The type of anesthesia will vary significantly depending on how complex the tooth extraction is. The cost of the drugs to induce anesthesia is $25 to $100 depending on the size of your dog. Simple extractions can be performed with these drugs alone.

If the extraction is more complicated or there are multiple teeth to be extracted, your dog will receive anesthetic gas too. This will require a staff member to watch vital signs using specialized equipment. This adds about $50 to $100 to the cost of anesthesia.

The veterinarian will perform an exam on your dog to make sure that your dog is healthy enough to go under anesthesia. The exam costs about $30 to $50.

Your dog may need diagnostics performed before going under anesthesia. It is usually recommended for young healthy dogs to have at least a blood test that includes a CBC and a limited chemistry panel. A fair price for this testing would be $80 to $120. Dogs with health concerns will require more diagnostics.

After-Surgery Care

After the anesthesia administered by the veterinarian wears off, your dog will most probably feel some pain. For this, clinics prescribe pain medications. They will also prescribe antibiotics to ensure the extraction site does not become infected.

To avoid putting pills in the mouth, vet clinics may administer long-acting injectable antibiotics. Expect to pay over $100 If your dog is a medium-sized breed.

It is wise to ask the vet for cheaper drug options before scheduling the tooth extraction. This way you won’t get shocked at the additional costs that you might have failed to consider prior to the surgery.

Antibiotic pills are cheaper alternatives, more so for large breeds. They can be purchased for not more than $30.

Please note that the anti-inflammatory medications will depend on your pet’s size, results of the blood works, and how many teeth have been extracted. But typically, take-home pain medications don’t go beyond $60 in total.

After surgery, it is advised to put your dog in a soft or canned, food diet. If not, reduce the amount of food that you serve to your dog. This will help lessen the pain and discomfort caused by the extraction.

Also, watch out for bleeding whenever you feed your dog. Minimal bleeding is normal. However, if you have noticed that the bleeding is excessive, you would have to contact the veterinarian who conducted the surgery.

Additionally, make sure to keep any hard toy or object away from your dog a few days after the extraction. This is to avoid the dog from chewing on anything that might put pressure on the extraction site.

surgery

Tooth Extraction Process

A veterinarian will be able to tell what tooth can still be saved and what needs to be extracted. To know whether or not the tooth can still be saved, an oral examination has to be conducted on your dog.

This examination is usually offered as an inclusion in the dental cleaning package. A full exam must be done under anesthesia in most cases.

However, to really know the condition of the tooth under the gumline, digital dental radiographs are being used in dental clinics. Through these, all existing gum and tooth problems will be detected.

The radiograph will be able to reveal underlying problems that were not discovered by the veterinarian during the physical examination. Full-mouth x-rays cost in the $150 to $300 range.

Dental cleaning is usually part of the tooth extraction procedure. While your dog is on the sedative, a technician will perform the polishing and scaling of the dog’s tooth.

Generally, the goal of tooth extraction is to separate the tooth from the alveolus or the tooth socket, including the roots. This is only possible through the breaking of the periodontal ligaments which are the tiny fibers connecting the roots to the alveolus.

Depending on the case, severing the connection between the roots and the alveolus may be done nonsurgically and surgically. Under both methods, the procedure always ends with the suturing of the extraction site to prevent any unwanted infection.

  • Simple (nonsurgical)

Simple or nonsurgical tooth extraction can only be utilized in removing single-rooted teeth. This includes the incisors, first premolars, deciduous canines, and mandibular third molars.

In a simple extraction, the periodontal ligament will be stretched using a dental elevator after incising the gingival attachments. A gentle twist and hold technique is utilized in maneuvering the dental elevator.

  • Surgical

Surgical extraction is resorted to in cases involving multi-rooted teeth. This is applicable in removing canines and certain large incisors and also in retrieving root tips.

This method is also preferred when dealing with normal healthy teeth, excess, and abnormal teeth.

First, a surgical flap is created in order to reach the alveolar bone. Then, high-speed drills are used in order to expose the roots.

The surgery also requires the use of dental luxators, elevators, and extraction forceps.

Typically, veterinary dentists require x-rays after complex extractions to ensure that the procedure is successful and the tooth or teeth have been completely removed. This is usually the cause of a high tooth extraction cost.

Possible Teeth Saving Options

We often think that our pet’s broken teeth need to be extracted right away. But more often than not, if the veterinarian sees that they are still generally healthy except for the visible damage, they would likely recommend the following remedies:

Root Canal Therapy – in order to save a damaged tooth, the dentist would remove the pulp inside and then cleanse, disinfects, and shaped the canal and subsequently filling the space to make the tooth functional again.

Pulp Capping – this is a kind of tooth restoration where the dental pulp is being protected from further exposure and necrosis or dying during cavity preparation. It is intended towards preventing any need for a future root canal.

These procedures are significantly more expensive than a tooth extraction.

Will Insurance Cover Tooth Extraction?

Pet dental insurance definitely would. The coverage would range from accident-induced injury to periodontal disease. These would include all the necessary radiographs, bloodwork, and examinations up to the procedure/surgery and aftercare.

Now it’s a completely different story with pet health insurance. Most medical insurance would likely cover routine dental services but tooth extraction would likely be exempted unless medically necessary that will lead to more complicated illnesses that the insurance would need to cover eventually.

Dr. Patty Khuly

Patty Khuly, VMD, MBA is a prolific pet health writer, occasional media personality, and a practicing veterinary clinician (for almost 23 years!).

2 thoughts on “How Much Does A Dog Tooth Extraction Cost”

  1. I have 13 lb Shih tzu, his about 11 or 12 years old. In order to get him groomed they have sedate. His doctor told me that they need to extract all of his teeth. They quoted me $1,800.00 maybe they can do it for $1200.00. I live in Salt Lake City, UT, is there an organization that could help me with the expense. I love my dog 🐕 and I hate to know he’s in a lot of pain. Can you please help me!

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  2. Hi I want to know about cost for teeth removal for my dog her age around one and half years old and one teeth left from childhood pls let me know about price thank you

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